Two Bodies Found In Coney Island Creek in Jet Ski Accident During Kaiser Park Outing

A NYPD Patrol boat searched the waterway for lost JetSkiers Willie Tom, 44, and Celine Lin, 24, around Coney Island's Kaiser Park at W. 31st Street in Brooklyn on the Fourth of July.  (Photo: Bryan Pace for the New York Daily News)  

Brooklyn

The bodies of two friends who disappeared while riding a personal watercraft in Coney Island Creek were pulled from the water Friday, cops said, according to the New York Daily News. 

Family of Willie Tom, 44, and Celine Lin, 24, the two people who drowned in Coney Island Creek, mourn as NYPD search for their missing bodies Friday.   (Photos: Anthony Delmundo/New York Daily News)

Grieving friends and family watched as the bodies of Willie Tom, 44, and his friend, Celine (Cici) Fu, 29, were pulled ashore from the water near where the pair went missing on the Fourth of July. 

Tom was riding with Fu — his best friend’s wife — on another pal’s personal watercraft when he made a short turn that tossed the woman into the creek shortly after 8 p.m. Tom dived into the water to save her, but the pair, who were not wearing life vests, were soon overcome by the water. 

 A friend said the two broke the surface three or four times before they disappeared for good. Michael Tom, 38, said he wasn’t surprised to hear that his older brother died during a valiant struggle to rescue Fu, who was frantically flailing because she couldn’t swim.    

“He was a very experienced Jet Skier, a very good swimmer — a great swimmer — and I guess there was no way he was coming out without her,” Michael Tom said. “Even the best lifeguards get pulled under when someone is panicking.”  

The pair were enjoying the holiday with friends at Kaiser Park before Tom borrowed his pal’s watercraft for a ride.


Police officers search by land and by water for the bodies.  

Read More:

Two bodies found in Coney Island Creek as distraught family watches from shore

New York Daily News - July 5, 2013 - By Erik Badia and Joe Kemp

4th of July tragedy: Recovery mission begins for Jet Skiers missing in Coney Island Creek 

WPIX - July 4, 2013 -  by Mike Sheehan    

Bodies Of Missing Jet Skiers Found Off Coney Island Shore

NY1 - July 5, 2013 - By Erin Clarke

Fourth of July beachgoers riding Jet Ski go missing in Coney Island Creek

despite extensive rescue attempts 

New York Daily News - July 4, 2013 - By Thomas Tracy, Mark Morales and Daniel Beekman 

Two Shot, One Killed In Kaiser Park

Emergency personnel treat shooting victim in Kaiser Park off of Neptune Avenue and W. 29th Street in Coney Island last night. A 25-year-old male was shot in the back and killed by an unknown male at 11:25p.m. in the park's soccer field. He was DOA at Coney Island Hospital.

A second male, 19, was shot in both legs and brought to Lutheran Medical Center.

(Photo: Danny Iudici for New York Daily News)

Brooklyn

An outdoor Coney Island, Brooklyn gathering turned deadly Saturday night when a shooter killed one young man and wounded another in Kaiser Park, according to the New York Daily News.

More than 100 people were partying, rapping and socializing on the park's soccer field a just before 11:30 p.m. when 10 to 15 gunshots rang out and sent parents running for their children, witnesses said.

The Brooklyn Seminoles square off against the HC Bounty Hunters on Sunday afternoon on the field where less than 18 hours earlier two men were shot, one fatally. (Photos: Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates)

Shamar Watts, 25, of Coney Island, was shot in the upper torso and was pronounced dead at Coney Island Hospital, police said.

A 19-year-old man was also shot in the leg and was taken to Lutheran Medical Center. He is expected to survive, police said, but did not release his name.

"I heard a shot go right over my shoulder," said a man who was in Kaiser Park during the shooting for a baby shower in a picnic area near the soccer field.

The gunman, "shot all the way till he got to the baseball field and kept shooting," the anxious witness said.

A patrol car passes by the soccer/football field in Kaiser Park on Sunday afternoon where two people were shot late Saturday night. Retribution is feared said a police source.

Police were called to control the unruly crowd. Field lights were lit as investigators searched for shell casings on the field, which was left covered with spent bottles of wine, Hennessy cognac and other garbage.

Cops used flashlights to search a playground in the park, which spans Neptune Avenue and 29th to 31st Streets in Coney Island.

Family members of the slain young man, including his mother, embraced and wept outside the emergency entrance to Coney Island Hospital. They declined to comment.

Discarded crime scene tape.

Read More:

Coney Island party turns deadly as gunfire kills one, hurts another at Kaiser Park

New York Daily News - July 31st 2011 - By Kerry Wills and Katie Nelson

One Man Killed, Another Injured In Brooklyn Park Shooting

NY1 News - July 31, 2011

Kaiser Park To Calvert Vaux Park $ 30 Mil Bridge To Nowhere Plan

Talk about building a bridge in the middle of nowhere.

A Brooklyn assemblyman is pushing a $30 million plan to build a pedestrian bridge over a heavily polluted creek to connect two city parks – one next to a gated Coney Island community and the other by the site of a planned waste-transfer station in Bensonhurst, according to the New York Post.

Assemblyman Alec Brook-Krasny said connecting 26-acre Kaiser Park in Coney Island and 78-acre Calvert Vaux Park in Bensonhurst with a walking bridge across Coney Island Creek makes sense — not only because it creates larger, contiguous green space to benefit two neighborhoods, but because "it helps wipe out the potential" for a seaside disaster.

He said residents in the gated-community Seagate and others on Coney Island’s west end face difficulty fleeing the island during a massive hurricane or other emergency. Many who live in the area are more than a mile away from the nearest exit, the Cropsey Avenue Bridge.

"If there’s ever a disaster, thousands, especially seniors, could be stuck getting out," he said.

Brook-Krasny (D-Brooklyn) said he has an architect lined up who’d design the bridge for free and that estimated construction costs are $30 million. The shortest distance between both parks is about 800 feet.

"In theory it sounds good, but it’s impractical," Ida Sanoff, a local activist and former CB 13 member.

"The $30 million would be better spend trying to come up with ways to limit the number of cars in Coney Island through mass-transit improvements. And seriously, how many people are going to want to walk from one park to the other just to travel between neighborhoods?"

Read More:

'$melly' span plan to link B'klyn parks

New York Post - November 28, 2010 - By Rich Calder